There is a famous saying in history that has been passed down to this day. It is "Everyone knows Sima Zhao's heart."

It tells the story of the late Cao Wei Dynasty, when the power of the Cao family fell, and the two generations of the Sima family made a comeback.

When Sima Zhao was young, he often followed his father on the battlefield. It can be said that Sima Zhao was a brave and resourceful man, but he was also a ruthless and ruthless person in the struggle for power.

In his early years, he followed his father to fight against Shu and had many military exploits. In the second year of Jingchu, he was granted the title of Marquis of Xincheng and Rural Areas. At the beginning of the Zhengshi period, he moved to Luoyang to be a general named Diannong Zhonglang. During the reign of Cao Mao, his stepbrother Sima Shi was the general. Taking over the state affairs exclusively, he headed towards the road of replacing Wei. In the fifth year of Ganlu's reign, Wei Emperor Cao Mao died and made Cao Huan emperor. In the fourth year of Jingyuan, he divided his forces and sent Zhong Hui, Deng Ai, and Zhuge Xu to attack Shu. Feng Jin Gong.

After Sima Zhao took over the power, he became more ambitious and always wanted to replace Cao Mao. He constantly eradicated dissidents and attacked political opponents. The young Cao Mao knew that even if he was a "puppet" emperor, he would never be able to grow up. Sooner or later, he would be eliminated by Sima Zhao, so he planned to take a desperate risk and use a surprise attack to kill Sima Zhao. One day, Cao Mao summoned his close ministers who were following him and said to them: "Everyone knows Sima Zhao's heart. Since we cannot endure the humiliation of being overthrown in vain, I want you to attack him together."

Several ministers knew that doing so would be like throwing moths into fire, so they all advised him to endure it for the time being. A man named Wang Jing present said to Cao Mao: "Today, the power is in the hands of Sima Zhao, and all the civil and military officials in the dynasty belong to him. Your Majesty is weak and acts recklessly, with disastrous consequences. You should consider it carefully." Cao Mao did not accept the advice. , personally led hundreds of servants and guards to attack Sima Zhao. Unexpectedly, someone among the ministers had already reported the news to Sima Zhao. Sima Zhao immediately sent troops to intercept and killed Cao Mao. Later, people used the phrase "Sima Zhao's heart is known to everyone on the road" to explain that the conspirator's ambition was very obvious and known to everyone.

Although Sima Zhao has the reputation of being a powerful minister in history, in objective reality, his actions still played a progressive role in history. He was an outstanding military strategist in the late Three Kingdoms period. In the Battle of Dongguan, in terms of military command characteristics, Zhuge Dan was obviously not at the same level as Sima Zhao's military talents in previous major battles. After this war, Sima Zhao pacified Guanzhong and conquered Lingzhou. , put down the rebellion, appease the ethnic minorities on the northern Mongolian plateau, and his outstanding performance in the Huainan Campaign are even more different. In Cao Shuang's battle against Shu, Sima Zhao suggested to Xia Houxuan that dangerous areas should be cautious and not stayed for a long time, and judged that The enemy will seize all dangerous points for defense.

As far as the accountability for military failures after the war was concerned, not only did Sima Zhao, as the supervisor of the army, have to punish those responsible for the failure, but the court also had to punish the generals. Sima Shi showed great political acumen. First of all, Zhuge Dan, who was mainly responsible, was Sima's in-law. They are all Sima Yi's old subordinates, or have friendships with each other. Deposing or attacking them will weaken the Sima clan. Moreover, Sima Shi knows that Wang Chang, Hu Zun and others have clear grudges and will not be ungrateful, so he treats them with tolerance and comfort, and treats them with kindness. Build closer relationships. Even though he had personal ambitions and had dissent from the court, Zhuge Dan still had a good impression of Sima Shi. Later, when Guanqiu Jian raised an army against Sima Shi, Zhuge Dan was grateful for Sima Shi's kindness to him and supported Sima Shi in putting down the rebellion.